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JEDPL Reviews: Medaka Box
Alright, on this Fanatical Friday, I guess I should start things off by being a completely unoriginal asshole... Link: "Gee, anime sure is boring around here... lately." King: "My boy, fanservice is what all true warriors strive for! .... For some goddamn reason." Link: "I just wonder what Ouroburos' up to." (Gwoman flies into the castle on his magic carpet.... The f*** is this, Aladdin Meets Not Zelda!?) Gwoman: "Your poorly-animated Majesty, Ouroburos and his minions have seized the site of Animapredictview!" King: "Hmmm... God, I can't think of anything for the life of me! You ever went to Taco Bell, grabbed as many burritos as you can, and shoved them down your throathole? Apparently, the smell of those burritos made my own brain take a shit and di---" Gwoman: {clears throat} "It is written: Only Mr. My-Name-Is-Not-On-The-Titlescreen can defeat Ouroburos." Link: "Great! I'll grab all my hentai... and stuff." King: "There is no time, your dildo that CONVINCINGLY looks like a sword is enough!" Link: "How about some pre-Ouroburos sex, for luck?" Zelda: "You've got to be kidding!" (And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is what cockblocking's all about!) Bonus points for anybody here that can obtain the reference! Children of the Animapredictview Wiki, you obviously know who I am! The nefarious Ouroburos the Extreme Conquerer who for some reason hasn't posted as much content as he thought he would from the past five or six weeks other than comment on users' works. Luckily, this is July, where I actually have a bit more to do as I please... just as long as a mob consisting of Grammar Nazis, Trolls, and Bronies have no gall to shove things up from and down my throat! {ahem} Simply put, I have two JEDPL Reviews for this month (weeeeell... maybe just one if I don't promise to make my deadlines) and also a Prediction. Quite frankly, this means that I'm trying to love every single one of you to death. NO HOMO! Alrighty, so the first of my "two" Reviews is going to be a TV series that I actually had an English Dub Prediction out of a bit earlier on this wiki; no, I won't even bother depicting a link, pompous bastards, just browse for yourself and you'll know where I'm coming across with this! Everybody, I'll try to not waste much of your time and be as productive as possible with this Review. Let us dive right into... Medaka Box, by Studio Gainax and director Shouji Saeki! I admit to bearing absolutely no regrets whatsoever while attempting this complicated f***child of an evaluation! First of all, a little history lesson needs to be given for those who have no idea for this entire series is all about. For the love of God and all that's holy, some of you should've went to Summer School! Medaka Box is a shonen manga penned by Nisio Isin (who sees a palindrome!? You? YOU, MISERABLE RENDITION OF THE OVERWORLD THEME FROM SUPER MARIO BROS!?!?), with character designs by, {gasp}, Akira Akatsuki! I never thought I would see the day when a Naruto fanboy would become a minor character in that film!! {laughs} Anyhoo, Medaka Box was first serialized in the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine from 2009 to 2013, because "Hey, every single popular franchise originated there, right? RIGHT!?". And also... Be surprised about this entire series due to the fact that the mangaka later decided to.... Screw it, I hate spoilers! Plot-wise, MB revolves around titular main protagonist Medaka Kurokami, a first-year student at Hakoniwa Academy who has it all: brains, beauty, power. To summarize, she's a hell of a woman! So back to Medaka herself... Medaka has been elected Student Council President with 98% of the vote, holy shitballs! Just imagine how much of the vote Bill Clinton got back then, amirite? She organizes a suggestion box, in which various students pretty much file complaints and whatnot, all while strongarming childhood friend and resident Straight Man Zenkichi Hitoyoshi into the Student Council. And... for this season, that's a majority of what's really going on, I'm dead SERIOUS! This could've been the ultimate reason why the manga AND anime's sales were initially the epitome of donkey dick. C'mon, if Haruhi Suzumiya and Sket Dance could become rave hits, this should've as well. But noooo, I suppose having a Mary Sue as a main character and the voice of reason as one of the supporting leads was already a "Been There, Done That" moment before! Isin, man, readers and viewers are going to expect something fresh sooner or later... unless if said people were morons! Fortunately, he pulls a huge Genre Shift right from his pure ass--- SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP!!!! NO SPOILING!!! {takes a deep breath} I'm OK. Back down to the nitty-gritty! I guess talking about one half of the main cast is in order, yes? Okay, you already know Medaka; huge tits, absolutely gorgeous, incredibly smart, athletic, and OOOOH, did I mention "huge tits"? You could fit a skyscraper in that.... Hahahahahahaha!!!! {gets smacked senseless} Compared to Haruhi, at least she's no Haruhiist! One of the things I honestly love about the girl is how eccentric she is, and her ways of doing things. Not to mention that in the penultimate episode, she showcases the ability to activate her War God Mode (in other words, "What would Goku's False Super Saiyan transformation look like in the hands of a babe?")! According to Zenkichi, Medaka's "so smart she falls right back into stupid". Speaking of the Straight Man himself, viewers (or READERS of the original manga) can instantly relate to Zenkichi and his surroundings. Yeah, I kinda feel his pain, too... Having to be coerced into joining a Council all while walking in on a member undressing's quite excruciating. But hey, at least Hitoyoshi's with a hottie! When was the last time I ever dragged my ass into getting a girl like that, huh? HUH?!?! My thoughts exactly... Of course, there are other roles, some of which... aren't as interesting as others, however. Kouki Akune, for instance, is a bishounen who is Zenkichi's rival. All the girls faint whenever they see 'em only because he's FABULOUS, but that's just all there is to Akune. What does this keep reminding me of? Oh yeah, can't forget Mogana Kikaijima: a money-breathing (figuratively speaking) meganekko who bears affection for both of the leading characters. She might have more personality than Akune, but sure as Hell not enough to consider her "memorable". There's also Hansode Shiranui, who I REALLY just can't help but call her a jerk... For all the right reasons. A loli with an omnipresent ahoge and voracious appetite mixed in with some twisted humor? Sometimes I feel as if Shiranui would've made a better main protagonist than Medaka herself. That's gotta be a spinoff, make it happen, Isin! The fanservice and comedic values are arguably what define Medaka Box, in the very beginning of it all. Although they aren't a lot of panty shots and Accidental Perverts strong with this one, those are easily made up for Medaka's bazookas which BOUNCE. PRACTICALLY. EVERY EPISODE. For what it's worth, Gainax did their part on catering to the series' fanbase, so Gainaxing galore? In the words of M. Bison, YES! YES! {clearing throat once more, somebody get me Sierra Mist} Also, you have to love some of the references the anime has to offer. Whether it be Moji, one of the Kendo Club members who blatantly looks familiar to Kamina (sounds just like him, too), to the freakin' Ginyu Force poses Medaka performs near the end of the first episode, tears of laughter will keep streaming down like a waterfall missing Niagra Falls! Speaking of animation... I guess this makes for one of Medaka Box's weaker elements. It is by no means terrible, although there are times when I wonder, "Man, remember when Gainax busted it out with those frenetic movements and mind-numbing crap!? Since when they did start being cheap?". Part of that is justified, since most of Gainax's key contributors left during this time to establish Trigger. The art style is a bit of a mixed bag: on one hand, characters such as Myouri Unzen, Shiranui, and even Medaka to some extent look detailed and rather pleasing to the eye, but as for the other hand, some such as Zenkichi and Kikaijima are pretty uninspired and... dull. I suppose that's the right word to classify those two! The audio presentation either amps or hinders the entirety of MB; one's mileage may vary. I love the opening and ending themes, as they fit in quite well with the first season of this anime, but the actual score composed by Tatsuya Katou is inconsistent. There are those moments when the music is grand, but the rest of it occasionally lowers itself about as low as a sandwich inserted into an Atari Jaguar; I went there, kiddies, don't make me repeat myself again! As for the voice acting, it's overall decent enough, but other than Minako Kotobuki as Judo Club member Nekomi Nabeshima or perhaps Yuki Ono as Straight Man Zenkichi, no one really meshes well together. And Romi Park as Unzen might have been unexpected, at least for me, but the seiyuu sure has a grand time chewing the scenery more than expressing any other emotion. Sentai Filmworks has licensed the first two seasons, but as of right now, there is still no confirmation on a English dub. I just hope Steven Foster isn't the ADR Director... And I bloody hope that Luci Christian doesn't get the role of Medaka, either! Final verdict All and all, Medaka Box definitely has its merits and downsides. For one, I enjoyed the humor, the main character herself and Shiranui, fanservice, and the main theme songs. But with the other side of the spectrum, I was dumbfounded by the series' simplistic plot (call me biased if you want), cheap animation, and inconsistent audio quality. I am Ouroburos signing out and I hope to catch you in two more weeks with the Review of Naruto. See ya then! Pros *The occasional humor and references thrown in are certainly a pleasure. *Fanservice may not be abundant, but with the amount of Gainaxing that MB has to offer, I'm not complaining. *The first season's opening and closing pieces are always catchy to listen to! *As boring as the episodic formula might be, I found it to be thorougly enjoyable... if only because of Medaka's wacky methods! Cons *Animation is a bit on the iffy side, and a few character designs just didn't catch my eye well enough. *The music used for the anime as a whole isn't at all consistent; I'll put it like this: tracks such as "Killing the Game and Got It!", "Sensou Demo Shiteru Tsumori ka?", and "Today We Have Come to Purge!" are stellar, yet others are just lying in the ground! *No English dub yet. *The story is on the self-explanatory side of things... Even if it IS to be expected. Category:Review